The recent cyber-attack on Bank Islamic has a rippling effect on the baking system of the country with at least six Pakistani banks have already suspended usage of their debit cards outside the country following the attack and there are still concerns being voiced from different quarters over the cybersecurity system put in place by the local banks.
Cybersecurity experts are cautioning that more Pakistanis banks are prone to such attacks and the central bank have already issued instructions to the local banks to tighten their cybersecurity and secure the data of their account holders and customers.
In the wake of all this came on Tuesday revelations of a top official of Pakistan’s premier investigation agency that data have been stolen from almost all major Pakistani banks.
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Private news TV channel, Geo News, quoted the Director of Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing Captain (retd) Muhammad Shoaib revealing the disclosure to it.
Shaoib said customers’ data from “almost all major Pakistani banks” was stolen in a recent security breach.
“Almost all [Pakistani] banks’ data has been breached. According to the reports that we have, most of the banks have been affected,” Director of FIA Cyber-Crimes wing Captain (retd) Mohammad Shoaib told the channel.
The revelations came in the wake of a recent report from Group-IB, a global cyber security firm, that hackers had released a new dump of Pakistani credit and debit cards on dark web forums.
Last week, at least six Pakistani banks had suspended usage of their debit cards outside the country and blocked all international transactions on their cards.
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Concerns about a breach of credit and debit card data spread in the banking circles, after a cyber attack on Bank Islami last week that wherein at least Rs2.6 million from its accounts were stolen.
“More than 100 cases [of cyber-attack] have been registered with the FIA and are under investigation. We have made several arrests in the case, including that of an international gang [last month],” Capt (retd) Shoaib said.
He said the FIA has written to the banks in question and is summoning the banks’ representatives to discuss the situation.
The issue of cyber-attack on Pakistani banks and stealing of customers’ data also featured in the National Assembly session on Tuesday.
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A member of National Assembly of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal raised the issue in the house. He said that the issue was of great concerns, adding that there are reports that data of Pakistani banks’ customers have been hacked.
He demanded the Finance Minister to come to the house and take it into confidence over the issue.
Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood while responding to Ahsan Iqbal’s point of order said that currently, the issue was under investigation. He added that the government will put before the house all facts after the ongoing investigation.
